GONZALES APACHES

Playoff bound Lady Apaches finishes district as 2 seed

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GONZALES — The Lady Apaches secured the second seed out of District 30-4A after beating Pleasanton 47-19 last Friday, then San Antonio Brooks Academy 60-10 on Tuesday to finish the district season 10-2. Gonzales used their dominating defense to overcome a slow start during Friday’s senior night event.

Pleasanton opened the night with a 10-0 run, with the Lady Apaches struggling to convert on the offensive end of the court.

“I think we had two missed layups, three missed free throws in that first quarter and then on top of that we weren’t moving in the 1-3-1, [Pleasanton was] finding their open looks, they seemed to be in a groove, we immediately went into that default where we’re struggling, we didn’t have confidence, we didn’t think we were going to knock stuff down,” Gonzales head coach Lance Butler said. “It wasn’t until we switched over to man, got some stops, we were able to get out run and get into our offense easier that shots started dropping.”

“Our first quarter we started in a 1-3-1 defense and we switched over to a man defense and that’s really our strong suit,” Hayley Sample explained, “and we can really work together, talk about switches and really cover the court a lot better when we’re on man defense.”

The Lady Apaches finished the half down 14-13, but then allowed just five points in the second half.

“Our shots weren’t falling and we knew we had to pick it up in the second half and then we really started to move the ball and find our open looks,” Jiseala “Chella” Longoria said. “They finally started falling and we rolled with it.”

Senior Devon Williams contributed to the surge, scoring all eight points in the second quarter, then adding 10 more in the third and three more in the fourth quarter.

Williams talked about the win being an important part of the senior class’ legacy in the program.

“It was nice to finish out with a win and just do it with the seniors,” she said. “You grew up playing with them so you just want to end it with a win just to have that one last memory with them at home. Just to say, ‘we won that last one.’”

“It was really important for us to win tonight because this is our last game playing in this gym, playing together as a team,” senior Hailey Riojas added. “We worked on a lot, I’m glad we won.”

Defense will be what carries the Lady Apaches throughout the playoffs. Next Tuesday, the team takes on Hondo in the bi-district round. For Butler, the team’s second half performance against Pleasanton was one to be proud of.

“That was probably our best half of basketball all year,” Butler said last Friday. “We’re going to carry that over into the playoffs where we’re going to have to play a tough team whether it be Devine or Hondo and they get a chance to continue their legacy and try to go on a deep playoff run, that’s our goal.”

The game is scheduled to take place in Floresville, with tipoff at 7 p.m.

District 30-4A boys hoops
  W L %
Geronimo Navarro 11 1 0.917
Gonzales 10 2 0.833
La Vernia 8 4 0.667
Cuero 7 5 0.583
Pleasanton 4 8 0.333
Poteet 2 10 0.167
SA Brooks Academy 0 12 0.000

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